Annual Meeting Draws Record Crowd to Kansas City to Discuss Technology

More than 550 highway safety professionals from
across the country came together in Kansas City
September 26-29 to share best practices and strategies
to move Toward Zero Deaths. The meeting, themed
Technology and Highway Safety: What’s Driving Our
Future, examined both the benefits and challenges that technology presents in reducing
deaths and injuries on our roadways.

NHTSA Administrator David Strickland gives the keynote address.

Both general sessions and
breakout workshops included the
technology theme. At the opening
general session on Monday,
NHTSA Administrator David
Strickland discussed his agency’s
focus on driver distraction and
other key priorities. Strickland also
announced that for the first half of
2010 highway fatalities decreased
nationally at a rate of 9.2 percent,
continuing a downward trend.
Not coincidentally, Strickland
released the new national seat belt
use rate—a record high rate of
85 percent.

Tuesday’s general session
featured futurist Glenn Hansen,
Insurance Institute for Highway
Safety (IIHS) President Adrian
Lund and Peter Kissinger,
President of the AAA Foundation
for Traffic Safety. Lund released
new research on the effectiveness
of texting laws, while Kissinger
focuses on the importance of
developing a traffic safety culture.
New York Times reporter Matt
Richtel discussed his Pulitzer
Prize-winning distracted driving
reporting during the conference’s
closing session.

Left to right: GHSA Communications Director Jonathan Adkins, New York Times reporter Matt Richtel, and GHSA Chairman Vernon Betkey.

The Annual Meeting was the setting
for the presentation of GHSA’s
Annual Highway Safety Awards.
Former MADD CEO Chuck Hurley
received the Association’s highest
award—the James J. Howard
Highway Safety Trailblazer Award.
Former Delaware Office of Highway
Safety Director Tricia Roberts
received the Kathryn J. R. Swanson
Public Service Award. GHSA also
presented four Peter K. O’Rourke
Special Achievement Awards. The
winners were the Crawford County
(Kansas) S.A.F.E. Program, DCH Auto
Group, the Florida Motorcycle Safety
Coalition and the Zero Fatalities
program (Utah).

The Missouri Highway Safety Office staff provided great support throughout the meeting.

While the days were packed
with sessions and workshops,
evening social and networking
opportunities were held at the
National World War I Museum and
the College Basketball Experience.